A life of borrowing

2009 Books continued 2

2009-09-23T11:39:00.001-07:00

Continuing on my last two posts, here are the books from this year continued:

The Hidden by Kathryn Mackel ~ just an okay book, lacked a lot of substance and character believability for me.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire ~ This was by far my favorite book of his, outside of Wicked which at times grew a little weary, but this story was so far from the original tale - it was brilliant, check it out.

Bobby Faye's (kinda, sorta, not exactly) Family Jewels by Toni McGee Causey ~ crazy, lighthearted and unbelievable book, exactly what made it fun to read.

Bobby Faye's (very, very, very) bad day by Toni McGee Causey ~ another of the same, just something to get lost in, the characters are fun.

The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe ~ pretty decent and interesting, looking forward to the next book in this series.

Vampyres of Hollywood by Adrienne Barbeau ~ I love vampire books and movies and this one didn't disappoint. Wondering if there are any more of these I can check out.

2009 Books continued

2009-08-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

more read this year (found my list):

The lonely girls club ~ okay but it dragged on a bit too long

The copper beech ~ enjoyed this but liked Tara Road better

The wrong hostage ~ fairly good but some parts were far fetched and too easy (crossing the border with the ease and frequency like they did, puleeze!!)

The sanctuary ~ great detail book was ok as far as storyline

2009 Books

2009-08-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

well I'm a bit behind with this blog....seven months to be exact!

I did intend to keep up with the reading blog for this year and hope to read my 60 books this year but I haven't been recording them and don't remember all the titles, but here are the ones I remember so far. I'm so far behind I'm just putting a link and maybe a comment or two (and these are not in any paricular order):

Dragonfly in Amber ~ excellent

Voyager ~ excellent

Drums of Autumn ~ excellent

The Fiery Cross ~ excellent

A Breath of Snow and Ashes ~ excellent

Lord John and the Private Matter ~ eh

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade ~ eh (obviously didn't like these as much as the Outlander series)

Wicked ~ liked the Broadway show so much better

Son of Witch ~ brilliantly written but Maguire has a thing for weird sexual situations that I could totally do without.

Mirror Mirror ~ again brilliantly written with the same odd sexual sidenotes that could have been left out.

The Shack ~ good but very deep, be prepared for that before you read it.

The Outlander, finished 12/28/08

2009-01-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

The Outlander by Diana Galbadon, written in 1992 and over 800 pages of awesomeness. This is my last book finished in 2008. A most excellent find, in fact I'm on to reading the next one in this series.

I'm in love with the characters and the writing is excellent. I find myself speaking the scottish words in my head all the time. This book is highly recommended - find it and read it!

*****'s

A Word After Dying, finished 12/1/08

2009-01-01T07:28:00.000-08:00

A Word After Dying, a Meredith and Markby series book, by Ann Granger.

Not my favorite book and not even what I'd call a great book. I had read another by Ann earlier this year and didn't like it that much either. At least in this one Meredith and Markby got into the meat of their relationship.

I give this one ** 1/2 stars

Predator, finished 11/20/08

2008-11-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

The Predator, by one of my all time favorite suspense writers, Patricia Cornwell, was a good book. It skips around quite a bit and you should have read some Kay Scarpetta books previously so you are familiar with the crazy cast of characters in these books. The plot is thick and crazy but helps to make for a interesting read. I give this one ***'s, only because it had to compete with the likes of the Twilight series this latter half of the year.

Tara Road, finished 11/15/08

2008-11-27T07:26:00.002-08:00

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy was an excellent read. Truly a different kind of story. The main character seems a little dense sometimes, I mean come on, couldn't you put two and two together dear? But she's lovable and enterprising and takes a huge step to changing her entire life circumstances. I look forward to reading more books by Maeve this year.

Definitely check this one out if you haven't already. *****'s.

Purity in Death, finished 11/6/08

2008-11-27T07:26:00.001-08:00

Purity in Death by J.D. Robb aka Nora Roberts. Another great Lieutenent Eve Dallas book, I think the 15th. I enjoyed this book most especially because of the hot hubby Eve has, J.D. aka Nora makes him very virile and desirable. The storyline was different, a little farfetched but she made it work. I give this one ***'s.

Breaking Dawn, finished 10/6/08

2008-10-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

More words: better than the last three.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer is a whopping 768 pages. I could not put this book down and I think I gave myself a massive left brain headache trying desperately to finish it.

We actually see some things come to fruition in this book. Major things.

I.LOVED.IT. Can't say that enough.

Most surprising for me was that the ending did not leave anything to question, did not leave me hanging, did not leave me depressed or grateful that it was finally over. Fantastic.

I'm really hoping for more from this series. Jacob and you-know-who's future perhaps?

***************** stars (yes the rating system just keeps getting better!)

Eclipse, finished 10/4/08

2008-10-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

one word: fantastic

Eclipse by Stephnie Meyer is book 3 out of the 4 (so far, here's hoping for more).

It was great. Characters and relationships are refined. This book was pure joy for all of its 640 pages. I read it in two days. Go get this series if you haven't.

I give it ***** + (I can give it more stars than my legend reads, I'm the boss!).

The Wheel of Darkness, finished 9/29/08

2008-09-30T04:18:00.001-07:00

I was really unaware that so many novels out there are written by two authors. This is one of those series. Again I think I picked in the middle of the series. This one I might be more inclined to read from the top.

This novel was called The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It's about an FBI agent, who reminds me an awful lot of a James Bond character, there is really nothing he can't do, it seems. He practices buddism, visits monks, finds out a dangerous relic has been stolen and could mean the end of the world! He embarks on a journey to find it and save the world.

I bought this while we were on vacation and the thing that drew me in was that the majority of the "save the world" action was on board the world's newest and largest ocean liner.

One thing you should know about me: right behind vampires and reading about them is my love of reading all things related to big ships and disaster at sea - prime example - all things Titanic. This drew me in and didn't disappoint.

It started off slow but the action in the middle and end were fantastic. I give this book the mark of a good read and recommend it. It gets ****'s.

The Cane Mutiny, finished 9/19/08

2008-09-30T04:17:00.001-07:00

The Cane Mutiny is a novel by Tamar Meyers (insight: I was at the library trying desperately to find the Stephenie Meyer books when I took this one because I couldn't find them) :o(.

This book was okay. The characters were colorful. The main characters' occupation (antique dealer with a shop) was interesting. The mom of the main character was out of this world over the top crazy! But the story lacked excitement for me. It dragged on and seemed incomplete at times.

I think the problem was this particular book I picked up was the only one at the library by this author and I didn't pay attention to the fact that it was the 13th (yes you read that right) in the Den of Antiquity series of books, starring Abigail Timberlake Washburn, as the main characters, who it seems, often finds herself in sticky situations trying to solve crimes.

I'm sure had I started at the beginning and read her whole story I wouldn't have felt so unconnected with this one. Maybe I'll give this series a chance by starting at the beginning.

I would only give this book about ***'s.

The Fifth Witch, finished 9/14/08

2008-09-18T03:57:00.000-07:00

Even though I finished this book fairly quickly I thought it was terrible. Unfortunately I am that kind of person that feels I have to finish a book or movie once I've started it or else I feel incomplete and bothered, so I pushed thru this book unhappily.

Although the concept was new and different, the ideas were incomplete and had big holes in them and there were just some things that felt unexplained and inconceivable. Like why certain people were killed without thought and violently while others stood around on several occasions and should just as easily have been killed. Several scenes like this throughout the book made it even more unbelievable and off kilter. And how easily the bad guys were brought down once someone made up their mind, believed in themselves and opened a book....

Seriously don't waste your time reading Graham Masterton's Fifth Witch. I honestly don't even know why it made publication. I give this one *

New Moon, finished 9/8/08

2008-09-09T04:25:00.002-07:00

Wow! Another great book in the Twilight Series from Stephenie Meyer. This is called New Moon.

I just can't say enough about how great these first two books are. I can't wait until next week when I go pick up the next two in the series. Right now I have two other books from the library to finish. I'm not good and reading multiple books at the same time. and I would do nothing but read these next two if I got them right away. I'm going to let some suspense and excitement build.

Speaking of excitement I spent more time at the movie website from my last post for the movie Twilight (first book in the series) boy did they get the characters spot on! And the clips look so much like the book. Very excited about this.

Anyways, this book has Edward Cullen gone and a new boy taking front and center stage; Jacob Black who happens to be a creature of another kind. I'm not going to give it away - you have to read it, but it was fantastically thought out and written AGAIN. Lots of feelings, not really any gore. I might even let my teenagers read this if they are interested (many mushy feelings abound), I was surprised when I saw on the back of the book covers that these books were on the Teen People's best read list, but they really are exceptionally clean (another thing I love about a good book). So this one also receives *****'s from me - check it out!

Twilight, finished 9/5/08

2008-09-09T04:25:00.001-07:00

Fantastic! Twilight by Stephenie Meyers is the first book in a the Twilight series, this one was written in 2004 I believe.

I don't know why I hadn't heard about this author before a couple of weeks ago. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know I'm a lover of vampire books/movies/etc. A lady I work with thought of me when the fourth book of this series came out and she asked me if I had read them. I was shocked so I hurried out last week after my last round of library books was due back and tried to see if they were there but they were not so I quickly ran over to Target and bought the first two books.

At first I thought they started off slow. I kept wanting to knock the main character, Bella, across her forehead and shout "open your eyes!" but she worked it out. Rather than deal with gore and death this book is so much more about the characters and their feelings. It's hard for me to get my head around a vampire having feelings. Don't we usually thing as well as being physically dead that they are emotionally dead as well? Not so in these books and I love the twist.

These are very easy reads and well written. If you haven't read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series yet -what are you waiting for??? I give this first book *****'s. Read more about the first book as well as subsequent books at her website here.

I just learned that this book, or the series will be made into a movie! Very exciting. I love to read the books that are being made into movies. Oh yeah baby check out what I just found: http://www.twilightthemovie.com/

Wuthering Heights, finished 9/1/08

2008-09-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

A classic, often a book required in english lit classes. I enjoyed it but it really is not my style. I really felt as I was trying to concentrate on finishing it that I was in my high school or college class being forced to finish it so I can write a synopsis or book report, uggh. But really its a good book and one of the 100 from this list so I'm glad I read it. What did you think of it?

here's the wikipedia information on Wuthering Heights. I read somewhere that this was Emily Bronte's only published work. Her sister was the "author of the family". Pretty neat.

So I hate to rate this book on my scale because like I mentioned it's well thought of classic literature but I only liked it so-so. If I must I'd give it **1/2, but someone will probably berate me for that!

Snow Blind, finished 8/23/08

2008-08-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Last book in my repertoire from P.J. Tracy. Another intriguing and different story line. I think that's what gets me most of all when I'm at the library reading the inside covers or backs of all the hundreds of books that are there, if it's something different as far as the main story line or location and if the little itsy bit of a peek of a character that sounds intriguing, I'll snap it up.

This one, Snow Blind, didn't disappoint either. Seriously someone tell me if they ever heard of a potential serial killer posing their victims as snowmen? And then when you find out who the killer(s) really are, you are quite torn between wanting them to pay and being sympathetic. Also a great read and I'm looking forward to future books from them.

Here's an excerpt from P.J. Tracy's website and I give this one ****'s. Check it out.

Dead Run, finished 8/21/08

2008-08-25T10:07:00.001-07:00

Dead Run is also by the mother daughter duo who wrote the last two books I've read: Live Bait and Monkeewrench. This one, out of all four of their books, I could NOT. PUT. DOWN. I think I read this in about three days, every chance I could. It's one of the novels that the entire story takes place in a 24-48 time period and you are just left on the edge of your seat. Great winter- time-in-front-of-the-fireplace type book.

It was excellent and thus receives *****'s. Here's an excerpt of this intriguing book from P.J. Tracy's website. I just love the Monkeewrench characters - they are all so different and eccentric.

Live Bait, finished 8/14/08

2008-08-18T12:25:00.001-07:00

Also by the mother/daughter writing team known as P.J. Tracy. How hard must it be to write a novel with another person? I don't know but they've got it down pat. Each book I read by them gets better and better.

Live Bait, 2nd in the Monkeewrench series, had a unique and fascinating story line. A bit far fetched but hey if you give it some thought, jewish vigilantism isn't that unusual is it? haha. I can't give away anymore of the story than that but it was truly original and I enjoyed this one as much as the first.

I give Live Bait ****'s. Check it out.

Monkeewrench, finished 8/7/08

2008-08-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

I just found these books at the library, and like quite a few that I find, I was initially drawn in by the bright colors and the artwork on the book cover. I mean check this one out - wouldn't you be interested?

I loved it! Only one complaint was how many characters are introduced in this first book. At first I was getting aggravated because the chapters are so short that I wasn't getting to know them well enough but luckily each character is back in subsequent books and you continue to get to know them. It's mainly a bad guy/good guy mystery type (no big surprise there, my favorite). The storyline was awesome too.

Imagine building a intriguing mystery game that basically revolves around solving murders. Only problem is someone "inside" is recreating these murders in real life and it takes until about four murders before the police get the real story from the Monkeewrench crew and then they have to work together to solve it. The book is fast paced and keeps you guessing. A very good read! I give this one ****'s.

Here's the info on Wikipedia from this book and here's more info on the mother/daughter writing team that is P.J. Tracy.

Dead Ex, finished 7/27/08

2008-08-18T12:10:00.001-07:00

I don't know what the fascination with dead people that Harley Jane Kozak has, but it makes for some fascinating reading folks, I mean check out the titles from her three books?!?

This book further elaborates on Wollie and Simon's relationship, we find them living together and getting more serious. He just sounds so dreamy, but towards the middle the relationship cracks a little due to Simon's FBI job. I didn't like that so much. Hopefully in a sequel we'll see they've worked things out. This book revolves around Wollie's best friend, Joey and her potential involvement in a murder. It drags about just a bit too much for me but because I love the characters so much it was still very entertaining.

Here's a link to the synopsis and reviews from Harley's website.

This one just gets ***1/2 stars.

Dating is Murder, finished 7/24/08

2008-08-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

Figures these next two books were due back to the Library by 7/24 and I just started reading this one on the due date! I think I owed $2.00 when I turned them in the for the next set! What's wrong with me???

Anyhow, loved this book just as much as the first one by Harley Jane Kozak (Dating Dead Men), in fact I liked it more because we get to know Wollie better AND she meets her hunk of an FBI man, Simon. Turns out Doc was a lover and a leaver. But she was at it again with the crazy dating and money making schemes - never a dull moment in that girl's life!

Well because I'm behind four books, I'm just linking you to the excerpt from Harley's website.

I give this book ****'s. Check it out!

How many have you read?

2008-07-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Found this awesome meme over at Memoirs of a Farm Wife (cool blog - check her out).

This gives me something to work towards.....

Apparently, the National Endowment for the Arts believes that the average American has read only 6 of the books on the list below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (maybe not every single verse, but enough to claim I've read it all!)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (doesn't this fall under C.O.N.?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I guess this isn't as bad as I thought. I've read 28 of the 100. So any readers out there want to give this a try? Let me know if you do and I'll come check you out.

Dating Dead Men, finished 7/20/08

2008-07-21T06:45:00.001-07:00

wow - I didn't realized that I loved this author before I even knew she was an author.

Harley Jane Kozak - don't recognize the name? I didn't either - good I don't feel so bad. But I recognized her picture right away. She's got a face that one doesn't forget. Very beautiful. I remember her from a couple of movies - the mom in Parenthood and Arachnophobia (why I ever watched that movie with my fear of spiders I don't know). And she had a role in a soap opera I used to love - Santa Barbara! Weird eh?

Anyways I just picked up a few of her books at the library and just finished #1 - Dating Dead Men. Here's an exerpt.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters, the names, the places and the events are fresh and new. Yes, it's my same old-same old read - mystery and suspense, but I always go back to what I love. But look at the main characters name - Wollie Shelley. Her full name is something like Wollenstein or something crazy like that. Very original. Her career as a greeting card shop manager and greeting card author is new; her friends are definitely unusual. I just loved reading this and can't wait to get to the next two books; Dating is Murder and Dead Ex.

There was only one thing I didn't like about this book and that was too many bad guys (at least four), I can only handle 1-2 bad guys. Don't know how Wollie managed it!

This book receives **** stars from me so check it out!

Dark Torte, finished 7/10/08

2008-07-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

I'm very behind in my reading and a little behind in my posting. What's wrong you ask? Boredom! Summer is too nice to sit and read unless you are sitting at the beach or poolside or camping with nothing to do (never happens), plus my laptop I got for my birthday has had a negative affect on my reading time! Oops.

Well I went back to one of my favorite, entertaining authors who created a series of books around cooking, catering and a great character, Goldie Bear.

This book, Dark Torte, was written in 2006 by Diane Mott Davidson. These books are fantastic reads. Little bit of humor, little bit of suspense, lots of getting into trouble and a little bonus at the end of the book - some awesome recipes! Read a little exerpt here rather than me telling you about the book.

I tried the best recipe from this book and was pleasantly surprised, the whole family loved it! It's a sausage and potato casserole. It's got some garlic, diced mushrooms and onions, italian sausage, egg, cheese and sliced potatoes in it. I tweaked it a bit though - instead of guyere cheese I just used casserole cheese. Definitely try it - delicious!

I give this book **** stars because it's right up my alley - easy, entertaining and lovable characters.